A local police officer and former member of state parliament will try and reclaim a seat at next year’s election.
Marty Hunt has been selected as the LNP candidate for Nicklin, paving the way for him to try and win back the northern Sunshine Coast seat he held from 2017 to 2020.
The 53-year-old took over from long-serving Independent Peter Wellington in 2017, before being pipped by Labor’s Robert Skelton four years later.
Now, he’s poised to take on the latter again.
Mr Hunt said he was focused on helping the region’s residents in a range of areas.
“I speak with locals in Nicklin every day through my work as a school-based police officer, and in various volunteer roles, and I see first-hand the way our community is hurting,” he said via an LNP media release.
“We need to make housing accessible and affordable; we need a government that will improve access to health services, we have to act to make our communities safer and we must take the pressure off Queenslanders who are struggling with the rising costs of living.”
Mr Hunt said he will “listen to the communities in Nicklin and deliver change we so desperately need.”
LNP leader David Crisafulli welcomed Mr Hunt to the team.
“Marty is well-known and respected in his community through his years of service as a police officer and Member of Parliament,” he said.
“He has shown unwavering determination to fight for better health and hospital services and community safety.
“Marty is deeply connected to his community and is unashamedly focused on the things that matter to locals.”
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Mr Hunt served in the police force for three decades, and was Sergeant in charge of the Nambour Police Citizens Youth Club, before entering Parliament in 2017. When he narrowly lost the seat in the 2020 election, he returned to the police force.
The State Member for Glass House Andrew Powell backed Mr Hunt.
“My good friend and former colleague Marty …knows the electorate,” he said via social media.
“He knows how to deliver for Nambour, Palmwoods, Woombye, Yandina, Cooroy, Mapleton and Kenilworth.
“I look forward to working with him in representing the Sunshine Coast hinterland.”
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